Canada Cycling Hall of Fame Induction

Former Delhi resident Albert Schelstraete-Coulier was inducted into the 2017 Canada Cycling Hall of Fame on the weekend. Albert started his amateur racing career in Delhi. In 1937 he travelled back to Belgium to race but returned to Delhi after suffering an injury that resulted in two leg casts. In 1939 he built the first of many velodromes here in Delhi. The opening day of racing on May xx 1939 drew 2500 spectators according to a News-Record article from that time. Albert followed up with creating the Norfolk Cycling Club, still active today as the Silver Spokes Cycling Club. In the early '50's he promoted many races in the Delhi Arena on a specially built portable velodrome. Those races attracted competitors and spectators from California to New York and across Canada as well as Europe and Japan. It put Delhi on the world map for cycling. Albert competed in the Masters category across America, Austria, Belgium and France in the 1980's, even riding from Windsor to Florida on his 60th birthday as a pre-race training venture. Albert passed away in Tillsonburg on March 11, 2011.